


Ulterior Motives

by ciscoscaitlin



Series: in every universe [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Tutoring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 08:31:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17556905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ciscoscaitlin/pseuds/ciscoscaitlin
Summary: In which Cisco tutors Caitlin in Physics.





	Ulterior Motives

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MoonlightShines (Thatkillervibe)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatkillervibe/gifts).



> Shy Caitlin fakes needing to be tutored in physics at college just so that she can guarantee to get 1 on 1 time with her crush, Cisco ~ requested by @thatkillervibe

She takes a deep breath, peering behind a bookcase.

She watches him carefully, sitting in their usual spot in the far corner of the public library. He’s facing away from her, long hair curtaining over his face, and she can already imagine the sunlight from the large window brightening his eyes and reflecting onto his smile.

_He had a beautiful smile._

She took another deep breath, willing herself to move her legs, her heart thumping loudly in her chest.

“Hey,” the words come out quieter than she intended, but he seems to hear her because he looks up from his textbook and smiles brightly at her. Her stomach flutters and she swoons internally, just as she _imagined._ She gently slips her bag off her shoulder and slides in the chair he offers to her. “Sorry I’m late, lab went a little over today, you know how Dr Wells can be.”  

He waves her off, tucking his luxurious strands of hair behind his ear as he always does. What she would do to run her fingers through that hair; she wondered if it felt as soft as it looked. “Hey no worries, my schedule is free for the rest of the day, so I am all yours.”

_God, if only…_

“Don’t be silly, I don’t want to take up too much of your time. You’re already helping me big time after I failed my midterm.”

He narrows his eyes and twitches the corner of his lips upwards, eyeing her like he knows all her secrets. In this instance, she prayed he didn’t. He leans forward, their faces only a breath apart. “Anything for a friend.”

Her breath hitches at the close proximity, and she has to resist the urge to lower her gaze.

He would do things like that often; casually invading her space or leaving touches on her shoulders, arms or lower back. Innocent gestures that would have her heart racing in her chest, and tingles down the base of her spine. Sometimes she couldn’t help but allow her thoughts to wonder to dangerous territory. She’d imagine all the possibilities that he liked her back (although, at this point she was sure she was hopelessly in love with him) or somehow figured out her ulterior motives to their private tutoring sessions; one in which she secretly had not failed her physics midterm because she was secretly a genius, and he was playing her right back.

He flashes her his best mischievous smile and sits back in his chair, like he hadn’t just ripped away the oxygen from her lungs. That moment is usually when she’d fall right back into reality, because she knew the probability of him figuring her out was slim.

She tries not to stare as he closes his textbook and chucks it in his bag, his hair falling into his face as he leans down to slide a different textbook out and some papers. He catches her eye and smiles, his own eyes twinkling. She hides her blushing face behind her curtain of hair, leaning over to pull out her notebook and pencil case.

“I’m gonna assume you looked over the material we covered on Friday over the weekend?” He was smirking playfully. Even before he’d started tutoring her, he’d constantly tease her that her social life was nonexistent because of the relentless hours she’d spend studying in the library, in her room and at their on campus coffee shops.

The first time he’d joked about it, they were barely friends - mere acquaintances through their roommates, she’d found it annoying and insulting. Until she’d gotten a 96 on one of her midterms in their first semester, and her mother had been less than pleased with her inadequacy. She’d spent the next two weeks studying relentlessly, barely sleeping and eating; worrying her roommate Iris sick. Cisco had found her lying face first one morning in the library, he gently shook her awake and led her back to her dorm despite her protests. The next day he’d found her in one of the coffee shops, quietly reading from one of her texts books. He’d sat down opposite her and gave her a twenty minute lecture on why sleeping and eating was important. From then on she’d come to realise that his teasing was just a friendly reminder to take a break.

Things escalated when he’d somehow figured out the midterm she’d been stressing over was Physics, his speciality apparently, and had he insisted on tutoring her in the second semester. She’d meant to tell him that her mother’s version of failure was anything below a 98 was equivalent to his version of a 46 - which he’d assume she’d had when his roommate had falsely informed him. But then they started spending more and more time together, and she soon realised that she _liked_ spending time with him.

She wasn’t exactly lying to him either, she had failed, at least according to her mother.

“Actually I didn’t, Iris insisted I spend the weekend with her at some beauty festival.”

He feigns a look of shock, and she shoved his arms. He snickers and catches her hand with his before she can shove him again, “ow, you’re strong!”

His hand is warm enclosed over hers, and she can barely think straight. She pulls her hand away quickly before she starts blushing and spluttering again, especially after the debacle two weeks when he’d wrapped an arm around her shoulder to help her with an equation. She hadn’t been able to look him in the eye for the rest of the session.

He raises an eyebrow at her and she deflects it with a pout, “and you’re mean.”

He snorts. “But for real though, that sounds like fun.”

She shrugs, “a little.”

“Y’know,” he starts, scratching the spot behind his ear. “I was thinking that it would be nice if we spent time together.”

She frowns, “you mean like, aside from right now and the last few weeks?”

“I mean, outside of me tutoring you. We’re friends right? And friends hang out.”

She shuffles in her seat, feeling uncomfortable. She definitely wanted to spend time with him outside of tutoring, they usually spent a large proportion of their sessions talking about unrelated subjects and he always had to keep directing them back on topic. But their tutoring sessions were safe, she always knew what to expect and the library was her safe space. She knew where all five exits were if she needed to escape, and she knew exactly which aisles were vacant so she could hide when her social anxiety got the best of her.

Was she ready for that?

_No. Absolutely not._

But looking at him now, the light blush to his cheek and the tremble of his bottom lip. She wondered if he felt the same.

“Like what, for example?”

He blinked surprised by her question, “uh, I hear the coffee here is really good.”

She smirks. “I heard that too.”

“A movie, we could see a movie. You like movies right?”

“Yes, I like movies.”

He beams and she can’t help but smile right back. “Great, great! There’s a new sci-fi movie out that I am dying to see, we should go see that! Okay, just don’t tell Barry.”

“Why not?”

“Because he wants to see it too.”

She furrows her eyebrows, “then he can come too?”

“No, _no!_ ” His raises his voice, and he catches the surprise on her face so he slouches back in his seat. “I just want to go with you.”

She can feel her body heating up, the soft tingles in her stomach. “Okay, just, uh, message me the time and place.”

He beams again, lifting a finger to brush back a strand of her hair that had been irritating her nose. Her breath hitches in throat when she notices his gaze linger on her lips, and it takes her a moment to realise she’s chewing on her bottom lip again. A habit she does when she’s feeling nervous.

He trails his finger down from her cheek to her chin and lifts it up, connecting his eyes with hers. He tilts his head towards her and she hears him mutter something under his breath in Spanish.

Her heart thunders in her chest, and for a moment she wonders if she’s imagining this. If this was just another one of the daydreams she seems to be having more consistently. Specifically of him, holding her hand, smiling at her… _kissing her._

Because there was no way he was slowly leaning closer and closer towards her, eyes drifting shut…

Her phone vibrates loudly on the desk.

She startles in her seat, edging away from him and reaching for her phone.

Iris.

She hisses under her breath, kicking herself for not turning it off like she usually does whenever she enters the library. Technology was a huge distraction magnet.

**_Have you told him yet? You have to tell him!_ **

Gritting her teeth, she ignores it and shuts off her phone.

She hears him clear his throat behind her. “Anything important?”

She forces herself to look him, “um, just Iris.”

He doesn’t seem all that fazed that he’d nearly kissed her in the library of all places (not at all where she imagined them having their first kiss).. He’s slouched casually back in his seat, the hand that had cupped her chin now rested over the other end of her chair.

She has to resist the urge to lean back into his arm.

“So, I just realised, we’ve gone twenty minutes into our session and we haven’t spoke about Physics once. This seems to be becoming a regular pattern, maybe I’m not the best person to be tutoring you.”

She panics, “What? Don’t be silly, you’ve taught me a lot-“

“I don’t know…” he pauses, eyeing her cautiously. “I wouldn’t want you to fail because of me.”

Her fidgets her fingers, playing with the ends of her hoodie. The guilt of lying to him was definitely starting to pile up.

“Trust me, if I fail it’s because of me.”

He scoffs, “Y’know, you’re one of the smartest and most amazing woman I’ve ever met. And you deserve a tutor who doesn’t make the moves on you in the middle of a session, or get distracted everytime you smile or when your eyes light up because you got a question right.”

Her heart sinks in her chest, “wait, what?”

He slips his phone from his pocket, “I know some really smart guys in my class who I could recommend…”

 _Crap._ She had not expected that.

She grabs his phone out of his hands, “I don’t want any of those guys to tutor me.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t know those guys…”

He reaches for his phone but she pulls it back, “for real? Cait, come on. I promise they’re nice and not at all creepy-“

“I don’t think you’re creepy.”

His face softens, “aw, that’s not what I meant but thanks. I just saying that these guys could help you better-“

“Cisco, stop! Okay, I don’t need them to tutor me!”

He folds his arms, narrowing his eyes on her, “and why not?”

“Because I didn’t fail my midterm!” Her eyes widen when she realises she’d slipped.

She had just ruined everything.

“HA!”

She drops his phone on the table and jumps from her chair, heart thundering in her chest. He was pointing at her, a wicked smile on his lips and eyes lit up like he had just won the lottery.

It’s then that she realises _he knew._ He’d figured her out.

“I have to go.”

She doesn’t even bother picking up her stuff, she just runs. Runs through the aisles until she reaches her door, leading her down an abandoned corridor and to a staircase that leaded to a back exit. She was one of the only students at the university who was aware of it; as normal less insane people just used the front exit.

She carried on down a couple of floors and down another corridor, finding a corner to lean back against a wall. She covered her face in her hands, breathing heavily.

She feels gentle hands tug hers from her face. “Hey, hey, hey.”

She pushes her back further into the wall, “you found me.”

“You forgot to pick up your bag on your little great escape there.” He saids pointedly, carefully dropping both his and her bag to the floor. “And you’re not the only person who knows this building like the back of their hand.”

“You followed me.”

“I followed you.” He admits, smirking at her. “Nice place you got here, very creepy. Do you come down here often?”

She shrugs, averting her gaze down to her shoes. “Just when I need to…”

“Escape?”

She briefly meets his eyes and nods her head, her breath hitching in her throat when she notices how tenderly he is looking at her.

“Aren’t you going to ask why?”

“Why you lied about failing your midterm?” He crosses his arms, “well I figured you just couldn’t resist my boyish charms and dashing good looks.”

She giggles, leaning forward to playfully swat his chest. He grabs her hand before she can pull away, and holds it against his chest.

“When did you figure it out?”

“Technically I didn’t, Barry let it slip that you got a 96 on your physics midterm a couple of weeks ago, and I connected the dots.”

 _Two weeks ago?_ They’ve had nine sessions since then.

She sighs, “I didn’t mean to lie, at least not at first…”

He shrugs, “I shouldn’t have assumed that you needed a tutor when you told me you felt like a failure. I should have known that anything less than an 100 is a failure to the future Doctor Caitlin Snow.”

Her heart flutters in her chest. He called her that often, to remind her that she was incredibly smart and talented. The first time he’d said that to her, she’d fallen for him in a heartbeat.

“It’s not a failure to me, at least not at first. Physics isn’t exactly my strong subject, but I was happy with my grade.”

“So what changed?”

“My mother, she…” she pauses, drifting her gaze to the hand he was still holding tightly to his chest. He squeezed it reassuringly, encouraging her to continue. “She didn’t exactly agree.”

He nods, a subtle darkness in his eyes. An understanding from someone who’s also experienced parental disappointment more than one time in their life.

“I get that. But you could have told me that.”

“I know, I should have and I’m really sorry. I just… I realised that I really like spending time with you, and I was worried that if I told you the truth…”

“You wouldn’t have an excuse to spend time with me?”

She blushes, nodding her head.

“Here,” he lets go of her hand and leans down to fish through his bag. “I’ve been meaning to give you this back since I realised our little tutoring sessions was a hoax.” He pulls out a handle of twenty dollar notes and counts them out in his hands.

“What are you doing?”

He carefully places the notes in her hands, “I’m giving you a refund.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

He smiles, “yes I do. You don’t have to pay me to spend time with me. I told you, I’m all yours.” He gestures to her bag, “may I?”

She nods, legs shaking from under her as she watches carefully as he takes her purse from her bag and insists she slot the notes in. She does, fingers fidgeting. She drops her purse back in her bag and cautiously turns to face him.

“What now?”

“Well, since you longer need tutoring,” he smirks, poking her side. “And I told you I have the rest of the day free. As do you…”

She raises an eyebrow.

“Yes, I may have learned your class schedule off by heart. I like you, like _a lot_ , okay? I have for a long while. Don’t judge me.” He glares at her, poking her again when she laughs. “You in the mood for lunch?”

She eyes the hand he holds out for her, and slowly takes it in hers. He tangles their fingers and squeezes them tightly together. “I’d love to.”

He beams at her, cheeks round and eyes crinkling. Her favourite smile of his. “Perfecto!” He slides his bag over her and waits for her to do the same, before he gently tugs her down the corridor. “Oh, and also! I may have already revised times for our sci-fi movie before the tutoring session… you free tonight at around seven?”

“I think you already know the answer to that question.” 


End file.
